Help needed via advice

[bschlott]

Well I know the skills I have as a mechanic would be helpful I just wasn't sure if it would be enough to sustain a family of 4 for the most part. I have never freelanced my self out. Working for a company kinda hinders my idea of what's really out there private sector wise.

[haiqu]

Yes, there are aspects that make it a "blue water" boat. Most of that is in the outfitting though.

There are only a few types of yacht I would hesitate to sail around the world. One would be a plywood catamaran or trimaran designed and built in the 1960s. There are a lot that were really badly made in back yards. Another would be anything with water ballast, like a Macgregor 26.

As long as it has a solid keel and mast and keeps the water outside and the air inside, you're good to go.

[haiqu]

Supporting a family is a whole lot cheaper when you aren't paying rent. I live on $135 per week (excluding food) and that includes registration for two yachts, two vans (one in Australia and one in New Zealand) and a trailer, and rates on my house in NZ. My income is $400pw and I feel wealthy. It's just a different set of conditions. Rent kills us but we need it to be near work. In the end I was paying $180pw for a 12' x 20' room in a shared house, which is completely nuts.

Working for yourself ain't bad once you get used to it. The hardest bit is dealing face-to-face with people, they can be weird and argumentative and unreasonable at times. But the work is the same as ever, you just need to adapt a few extra skills.

[steve_h]

It might be easier if you have a look for some boats that you can afford and that you think you could live on, then ask to see if people think it is blue water suitable. That will then exclude the ones you don't like or can't afford. Yachtworld is a good place to start.

I met a mechanic living on a boat in Portugal. He got a fair bit of work but he had been in the same for quite a while so people got to know about him. That may be a problem if you are moving all the time. Perhaps cruise in the summer and stay put and work in the winter?

[haiqu]

Originally Posted by bschlott

Y'all are missing the point of this thread though :/ I need to know what boat builder/ brand names are good blue water boats. We're looking to sail all around not just coastal cruising. Also I'm still dying to know what others are doing to earn money while "continuously" living on a boat. If we have to make port somewhere for a while that's fine just don't want to have to move back on land to make enough cash to keep going.

Just so as you know we're still on your side, the standard answer for buyers in the USA is Island Packet 42, Caliber 40 LRC, Hylas 46, Tartan 3700, Valiant 42, Tayana 42.

All of these are well into six figures and there are a lot of less expensive choices.

[Auzzee]

I wonder if the link I posted in #9 on this thread was working. I will repeat it as the site contains the most concise and well researched content dedicated to assisting sailors of all experience in their quest to buy a boat for offshore voyaging.

In addition there is a full breakdown of voyaging yachts by name and country along with a quick comment regarding their worth. I hope this link works this time.
Mahina Expedition - Selecting A Boat for Offshore Cruising

[haiqu]

Both links seem to work fine Auzzee.

[steve_h]

Originally Posted by Auzzee

In addition there is a full breakdown of voyaging yachts by name and country along with a quick comment regarding their worth. I hope this link works this time.
Mahina Expedition - Selecting A Boat for Offshore Cruising

That is a very comprehensive and well written document.
After reading that it is then down to the OP's taste and preference.

[Hiady]

Reading the replies you are getting some good advice but let me give you some sound advice having sailed Europe for over 30 years. Buying a boat is not your biggest problem, sailing inexperience is! Don't be under any illusion you can just set off across the Atlantic to Europe and it be easy, in fact it is one of if not the most difficult crossing you will ever have to endure in your life, I am telling you this as fact as I have sailed in the Atlantic, it can be absolute hell with waves as high as your mast. I would advise either buying a boat in Europe have yours carried across but do not attempt it yourself. You will not be able to earn a living over here as even the people here who have long standing diving and chandlery and boat repair skills have little work. Remember one thing when heading for Europe, depending on where you are from depends on how you get treated. That's not racist in anyway it's fact. The locals will not allow you to poach any work and the tourists will not use any one other than the locals. One piece of advice you have been given is spot on, take 2 years to plan it and visit and charter just to see how it works but you will need ICC.
Good luck.

[Tom Bunker]

Originally Posted by bschlott

Hello everyone
This is my first post on here so please be gentle with me. I am seekin some advice about what boats would be suitable for a family of 4 to curcumnavigate on. We have no real preferences yet as we have never sailed. Also what options are there for work while we're out sailing the high seas. I have a back ground in diesel mechanicing and my wife is a perpetual student. I have been recently laid off and we're interested in using everything in savings to just buy a boat and leave. Is this even a plauseable idea let alone a practical one?

You have never sailed and you want to circumnavigate. You are getting good advice about boats here. Let me advise, "Learn to sail."

The dream and the reality of sailing long distances are very different. There is so much to learn. It's not that difficult, but it's foolish to just jump in. Someone will be happy to take your money.

Think in terms of a few years of planning and learning, before you buy. Consider the serious nature of the journey and the safety of your family.

I'm not saying to not go. I'm saying be sure you know what you're doing before you buy. Make sure that all of the family members buy into the reality of long days confined to a small vessel.

[Brent Swain]

I had a ferro boat under me when I hit the reef in Fiji, my first offshore boat. Broke up like a watermelon dropped on a sidewalk. Steel would have suffered little, if any damage in the same conditions.One 36 footer of my design pounded on a west coast Baja beach for 16 days, in up to 12 ft surf, and was pulled off thru 12 ft surf, with minimal damage. Another pounded across 300 yards of Fijian coral reef leaving Suva, and was pulled back of thru the same big surf, with minimal damage.
I switched to steel after losing my first boat, and would not consider anything else.
My 540 gallon per day watermaker cost me around $700. I built it myself.Wolf Berg
( wolfwatermakers.com) who put me onto it, said the main source of problems with watermakers is electric drive .Mine simply uses a V belt of the main engine.
On my last trip from BC to Tonga, and back, I didn't have my watermaker yet, but took no water from ashore.I caught all I needed off my mainsail and decks.
My mainsail lazy bag , held up by lazy jacks, caught a lot off it at sea. In squalls, it poured out the front end, and into a bucket.

Below the waterline , my steel boat needs little maintenance, as the zincs protect it. Being a twin keeler, which spend weeks at a time drying out on every tide, the bottoms of my keels have rarely had any paint on them, in the last 32 years , but are in perfect condition. Any time I see any rust , I weld another zinc on and it disappears ,never to return ,unless I let the zinc disolve. So I weld another on and the rust washes off and doesn't get replaced.
A steel hull under you is a huge safety factor, even more important when you have family aboard.
The Sleavin family would have had far better chance of surviving, had their boat been steel.
One client I built a 36 for, who had sailed his fiberglass boat from BC to New Zealand and back, said the improvement in peace of mind his steel hull gave him, sailing at hull speed on a dark foggy night, was huge.
( Search Silas Crosby)

[Auzzee]

I have had all mediums, with the exception of aluminium, on a variety of my boats over the years. I confess I feel more secure in my current steel boat than I have felt in any previously.

There is a trade off in being more proactive when addressing potential maintenance issues, but that goes with the territory.